How to disappear in America

Thank goodness for weeks where I am stuck in studio retouching. Why? Because I get to watch super longform videos like this without any interruption whatsoever (I also get to catch up on all my podcasts!).

This video is a few years old. It features journalist Evan Ratliff writing for WIRED back in 2009 on how to literally disappear in America. No digital traces, no credit card use, no cellphone -- just *poof* -- gone from everybody's reality. The project came about because of Evan's interest in stories of people who have seemingly vanished off the face of the earth. Whether it was running away from others, getting lost in the wilderness, or just evading authorities, the stories of these disappearances made Evan wonder if it was truly as easy as these people made it out to be.

He had a few rules though. He couldn't just pack things and go live in the forest for a month. He had to live in society while simultaneously not being detected as Evan Ratliff. He along with the editor of WIRED put up some money for anybody who could track him down and take a photo of him as proof, and supplied the public with general info about his whereabouts as clues.

The experiment was fun at times but also made Evan incredibly paranoid as he explains in the video above. Makes me never want to try this ever.

The mysterious disappearance of Richard Simmons

The New York Daily News has published this longform article about the mysterious disappearance of Richard Simmons from the public view and the very scary reality that he may very well be locked up in his own house and suffering from a mental breakdown.

The article mentions several close friends of Simmons who have not seen him in person for over 2 years.